Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ROSETTA (Reducing food waste due to marketing standards through alternative market access)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2025-06-30
Food waste is a major sustainability challenge in Europe and worldwide, with environmental, economic, and social consequences. Much of this waste occurs not because food is unsafe, but because it does not meet marketing standards. While these rules aim to guarantee quality and trust, they often exclude perfectly edible products, leading to inefficiencies, resource loss, and less resilient food systems.
ROSETTA project tackles this challenge by examining how standards drive food waste and by co-developing new ways to market & valorise suboptimal foods.
ROSETTA pursues six objectives:
- Engage stakeholders via a multi-actor approach – establishing Multi-Actor Innovation Platforms (MIPs) in Greece, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, and Poland to involve farmers, processors, retailers, policymakers, NGOs, and consumers in collaborative problem-solving.
- Analyse public and private marketing standards – to understand their role, rationale, and impact on food waste across fruit & vegetables, cereals, meat, and dairy products.
- Quantify food waste linked to standards – developing estimation models to capture waste flows at different supply chain stages.
- Co-develop and validate alternative marketing models – using the Sustainable Business Model Canvas to frame feasible, scalable, and sustainable solutions for valorising suboptimal foods.
- Assess trade-offs – balancing food waste reduction with marketing standards.
- Provide recommendations for future policies– informing policymakers, regulators, and marketing standards desingers.
The project strongly integrates social sciences and humanities (SSH), using consumer surveys, behavioural insights, and cultural analysis to understand perceptions and drivers of food waste and to better align with the societal needs.
By focusing on four commodity groups in five EU countries, ROSETTA creates a strong basis for replication across Europe, paving the way for more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive food systems.
ROSETTA project tackles this challenge by examining how standards drive food waste and by co-developing new ways to market & valorise suboptimal foods.
ROSETTA pursues six objectives:
- Engage stakeholders via a multi-actor approach – establishing Multi-Actor Innovation Platforms (MIPs) in Greece, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, and Poland to involve farmers, processors, retailers, policymakers, NGOs, and consumers in collaborative problem-solving.
- Analyse public and private marketing standards – to understand their role, rationale, and impact on food waste across fruit & vegetables, cereals, meat, and dairy products.
- Quantify food waste linked to standards – developing estimation models to capture waste flows at different supply chain stages.
- Co-develop and validate alternative marketing models – using the Sustainable Business Model Canvas to frame feasible, scalable, and sustainable solutions for valorising suboptimal foods.
- Assess trade-offs – balancing food waste reduction with marketing standards.
- Provide recommendations for future policies– informing policymakers, regulators, and marketing standards desingers.
The project strongly integrates social sciences and humanities (SSH), using consumer surveys, behavioural insights, and cultural analysis to understand perceptions and drivers of food waste and to better align with the societal needs.
By focusing on four commodity groups in five EU countries, ROSETTA creates a strong basis for replication across Europe, paving the way for more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive food systems.
The project is on track towards its targets and has demonstrated a good flow of activities across work packages, ensuring that scientific and technical progress is consistent with the Description of Action. During the first reporting period (M1–M18), ROSETTA advanced steadily in building the evidence base, engaging stakeholders, and preparing pilot actions to address food waste linked to marketing standards.
Five national MIPs were established in Greece, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, and Poland, engaging over 100 stakeholders across the food value chain, including producers, processors, retailers, policymakers, NGOs, and consumers. A common methodology ensured comparability across use cases while allowing contextual adaptation. A Community of Practice (CoP) and a digital toolkit were also launched to facilitate knowledge exchange and replication.
Comprehensive desk research analysed EU, national, international, and private marketing standards across four food commodities (fruit & vegetables, meat, cereals, dairy) and 11 countries. This included >50 in-depth expert interviews and a consumer survey with 3,500 respondents in 10 EU countries. Findings provided critical insights into how standards shape food waste and consumer acceptance of suboptimal foods.
Using literature reviews, interviews, and supply chain analysis, 13 estimation models of Food Waste were developed to quantify waste attributable to marketing standards in the four selected commodities. Flow charts mapped waste generation points across the value chain.
Building on analysis of promising interventions, 11 alternative marketing models were co-developed using the Sustainable Business Model Canvas. These span preventive, redistribution, and social interventions, integrating economic, environmental, and social benefits. Five national co-creation workshops (March-April 2025) helped refine and validate these models.
The models were assessed for trade-offs between food waste reduction and marketing standards objectives across economic, environmental, and social dimensions. The findings confirm that while trade-offs exist in relation to each marketing standard objective across economic, social and/or environmental impacts, many of the proposed models can deliver clear benefits.
When it comes to the preparation for the Pilot Experimentation, Operational Plans (OPs) were designed for all five use cases, tailored to local contexts.
Initial policy briefs and practice abstracts were produced to synthesise evidence and prepare the ground for policy recommendations on food waste reduction, marketing standards alignment, and valorisation of suboptimal foods.
These achievements ensure that ROSETTA has built a strong technical and scientific foundation for the next phase of pilot implementation, validation, and policy co-creation.
Five national MIPs were established in Greece, Ireland, Denmark, Spain, and Poland, engaging over 100 stakeholders across the food value chain, including producers, processors, retailers, policymakers, NGOs, and consumers. A common methodology ensured comparability across use cases while allowing contextual adaptation. A Community of Practice (CoP) and a digital toolkit were also launched to facilitate knowledge exchange and replication.
Comprehensive desk research analysed EU, national, international, and private marketing standards across four food commodities (fruit & vegetables, meat, cereals, dairy) and 11 countries. This included >50 in-depth expert interviews and a consumer survey with 3,500 respondents in 10 EU countries. Findings provided critical insights into how standards shape food waste and consumer acceptance of suboptimal foods.
Using literature reviews, interviews, and supply chain analysis, 13 estimation models of Food Waste were developed to quantify waste attributable to marketing standards in the four selected commodities. Flow charts mapped waste generation points across the value chain.
Building on analysis of promising interventions, 11 alternative marketing models were co-developed using the Sustainable Business Model Canvas. These span preventive, redistribution, and social interventions, integrating economic, environmental, and social benefits. Five national co-creation workshops (March-April 2025) helped refine and validate these models.
The models were assessed for trade-offs between food waste reduction and marketing standards objectives across economic, environmental, and social dimensions. The findings confirm that while trade-offs exist in relation to each marketing standard objective across economic, social and/or environmental impacts, many of the proposed models can deliver clear benefits.
When it comes to the preparation for the Pilot Experimentation, Operational Plans (OPs) were designed for all five use cases, tailored to local contexts.
Initial policy briefs and practice abstracts were produced to synthesise evidence and prepare the ground for policy recommendations on food waste reduction, marketing standards alignment, and valorisation of suboptimal foods.
These achievements ensure that ROSETTA has built a strong technical and scientific foundation for the next phase of pilot implementation, validation, and policy co-creation.
ROSETTA's results will go beyond the current state of the art by moving from scenarios to data-backed, real-world evidence. The project's innovations include developing novel estimation models to quantify food waste generated by marketing standards and validating them through pilot-tested use cases (that will continue in the second period), thereby providing empirical data. A mixed-methods, multi-actor approach ensures a comprehensive understanding of motivations and trade-offs, particularly for private marketing standards, by considering the intersecting social, environmental, and economic pillars. The resulting test-based evidence and replication guidelines will empower policymakers and businesses to revise standards, create new profitable business models for suboptimal food, and make informed decisions that ensure food waste reduction efforts have a tangible, positive impact on a broader scale.